Press TV reporter records sexual harassment by boss, flees Iran

9 February 2016

After releasing recordings of the news editor sexually harassing her over the phone, Sheena Shirani– a reporter for the Iranian-state propaganda channel Press TV– has fled the country.

This is not the first time that Hamid Reza Emadi [the news editor] has made news headlines. In March 2013, the European Union blacklisted him and his boss Mohammad Sarafraz, who is head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting company (IRIB), for their role in broadcasting the forced confessions of political prisoners.

According to the Official Journal of the European Union, they worked “…with the Iranian security services and prosecutors to broadcast forced confessions of detainees, including that of Iranian-Canadian journalist and filmmaker Maziar Bahari.” Bahari is the founder and editor-in-chief of IranWire.

Press TV covered Bahari’s “confession” in July 2009. He was released in October after international pressure.

The New York Times reports that two Press TV executives have been suspended.

Press TV, in a statement on its website in Persian, did not identify the two suspended officials. Sexual harassment is not mentioned, and the statement stresses that the release of the recording “with cooperation of the regime’s opposition” was done in order to damage Iran’s political system.

There is still plenty of content by, and quoting, Emadi at the Press TV English website. There is no mention of Shirani, or this latest incident.

I congratulate Shirani for having the courage to release the recordings after years of harassment by her creepy boss. Another Press TV reporter, Faranak Amidi, quit Press TV over its disgraceful coverage of the 2009 Green Revolution.

Why anyone with the least bit of self-respect or decency has anything to do with that station– especially after 2009 and the Bahari “confession”– is beyond me.